Electronically Sign Deed Made Easy

Electronically sign deed

[Music] hi my name is Francesco Zeus Burke I'm an associate in the corporate department at mints and I'm going to talk to you about whether documents can be signed electronically at a time when people are increasingly working remotely particularly we're going to look at whether English law governed contracts can be signed using ecig matures what is a new signature in a commercial context and a signature is often considered to mean a wet ink signature scanned and sent by email it can however take many forms including a tip box on a website and name typed at the bottom of an email or secure electronic signing software such as DocuSign and Adobe sign in most cases yes provided there is an intention to authenticate the document and formalities are satisfied there are however circumstances where a tining may not be acceptable for example for documents to be filed with UK tax authorities for transfers of rights and intellectual property for agreements which specify that they can only be varied by agreement in writing and signed by hand there are also practical issues to consider for the signing of deeds what about a signing deeds a deed must be signed in the presence of a witness it is generally considered that this requires the physical presence of a witness when a deed is signed from an e signing perspective there are two circumstances which would be legally binding the first is the deed being signed with a witness present and attested by wet ink which is then scanned and emailed as a whole document the second would be using an e signing platform where a signatory signs a deed electronically and a witness attests it case law isn't clear on whether it is sufficient for the signing of a deed to be virtually witnessed eg using skype facetime what's at Microsoft teens etc given that uncertainty we would suggest you avoid executing deeds where a witness is not in the physical presence of a signatory it is best practice for a witness to be independent of a signatory however in times of restricted movement it should be possible for family members or cohabit EES to act as witnesses provided they are not a counterparty to the document agree protocols and procedures around remote signing in advance consider whether the constitutional documents of an entity contains signature requirements for example restrictions on the use of electronic signatures or whether the intended signatories have the power or authority to bind the company consider whether any documents could be signed as contracts rather than deeds for example where the consideration is readily identifiable because this would negate the need for witnessing for evidentiary purposes ensure that the e signing system used provides a reasonable level of assurance that the document was executed by the signatory signing platforms tend to provide a certificate with information collected if you or your lawyers are not coordinating signing you should ensure a copy is requested and sent to you finally consider whether clauses could be inserted into contracts recognizing the parties intention to be bound by an electronic signature I hope you found this Q&A helpful if you have any questions please don't hesitate to email me or any of your contacts happens you [Music]